goonys evil twin

Not worth the attention? None of this crap is worth the attention it's getting. Frankly, I'd say nearly half, if not more, of the attention is coming from people who have nothing but praise for Maddux and his contribution to the team. No, it's not the biggest issue. It's also not receiving the most attention. I'm not saying the Cubs can't build a winner with Maddux on the team or that his contract is a club killer. It was just brought up because his option officially vested last night. I don't see why his defenders have to take it so personally. It's much more an indictment on how the Cubs run the team than any sort of rip on Greg himself, and I don't see how anybody can pretend the Cubs are good at running their team.

Oh goody, the old "he's not the only one". Listen. I'm not ragging on Greg. I'm responding to a lot of completely illogical defenses of him. Greg is grossly overpaid for the performance he provides. So is Wood. Next year, Greg will be grossly overpaid for the performance he is likely to provide. So might Wood. But then again, Wood could easily be back to his 02/03 ways, which was very good, and he could even have a career year. We don't know. Hopefully he does outperform though, the Cubs need every bit over "overperformance" they can get. As for the rest, obviously Nomar didn't live up to his deal, but this isn't a thread about Nomar is it? Nomar's story has been talked about a lot. I am very disappointed that JB is on the team, I'm pissed that he's the starting RF, and can't stand that he's been in the 4/5 spot all freaking year. But I can't say he's drastically underperformed his deal. Corey has sucked, but I don't think that topic has lacked attention. Rusch arguably underperformed his deal. After incentives, Neifi at $2.5m? is overpaid in my opinion, but we haven't avoided that topic. Jose Macias is overpaid. He should be playing on a minor league deal. Come to think of it, how the heck do you get off asking why I don't rag on the others? This is a thread about Maddux. It makes sense that somebody would talk about Maddux in this thread. It doesn't make sense to continually deflect attention away from Maddux in this thread. All those other guys get "ragged on" quite frequently in countless other threads.

What is the status of the compensation rule with regard to free agent signings. Do type A free agents still require first pick compensation? Are top 15 picks still protected? If that's the case, it'll be really interesting to see what the Cubs do the next three weeks. They are currently top 15 protected. Finishing at .500 or better would likely mean they fall out of the top 15. In baseball it's not really important whether you pick 10, 15 or 20, but if you sign a Type A free agent it's very important. The year they signed Latroy Hawkins, they lost their 1st round pick because of it. I was upset that Hendry wasted his Type A option on a reliever, and lots of people here ridiculed me for thinking so much about the draft picks instead of the big league team. I still think it has to be on the mind of the GM. If you are going to lose a first round pick, you better end up signing a real difference maker. If you sign 1 Type A middle reliever, you better follow that up with a Type A starter or a Type A position player, in order to justify the loss of draft picks. I don't have a problem losing picks, but if you do it, doing for important players. Odds are Jim will be signing a good amount of guys this offseason. As crappy as this season has been, I would at least like to see them keep a top 15 draft pick (even though this team has not been good with top picks). A .500 record is hardly a goal. Three straight winning seasons isn't success. Mediocrity is nothing to strive for. But I just know Dusty is dying to get back to .500 again, just so he can say how much of a winner he is.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. If it did, then you'd have to say that nobody's contract situation ever affects the team's payroll. You add qualifiers like "really" want, and "shouldn't", but the fact is that $9m is $9m. It's 9% of the payroll and significantly affects what you can or cannot do with the rest of the payroll. It has an affect, there is no argument against that fact.

This is correct and the crux of the issue. No one seems to want to address it however. I'm not sure how that is at all correct, or the crux. First off, you have no idea who he wants to sign. Secondly, simply signing guys is not the only way to acquire players or payroll. Every dollar spent affects the budget.

He's also running away with the team lead in losses. (he's only tied for the team lead in wins, not the leader)

My animosity is toward Hendry for once again overpaying for underperformance.

You're absolutely right. Yet not too many people complain about Wood's contract for next year. I know I'm not going to boo when he records out number five tonight. It's not a matter of booing the guy. It'll be pretty crippling if Wood fails to live up to his contract next year. But at least there's a chance he can be very good as he was in both 02 and 03. With Maddux, there's isn't a chance he'll live up to his deal.

That is a terrible mischaracterization of the truth. Maddux has had much more than 3-4 poor starts. And he's had nowhere near 29-30 very good starts. Your only support for Maddux seems to be ripping on the other starters. That's called dragging people down to your level when you can't elevate yourself, and it's a very weak strategy. I "dog" Maddux because he's not very good, but he's paid like a very good pitcher, and there's no hope for improvement.

I think, much like Vick, he's already overexposed.

Unfortunately, given Hendry's tendancy to overpay, his unjustified faith in Baker, and MacPhail's apparant belief that everything is fine, this would probably just result in a contract offer sooner rather than later.

And a lot of guys say they like playing for Dusty. Bottom line is it hasn't helped with results. I think it's a tremendous stretch to suggest they'd have performed worse without him. Maddux isn't a teacher. The others aren't learning through osmosis. This whole story line is nothing but filler and distraction from the basic facts.

This is probably a roundabout discussion, because both sides have valid points. But perhaps the reason we've had a merry-go-round bullpen this year is because they were so taxed at the start. None of them could handle the workload, so we had to bring up more and more guys. A fresh bullpen is more likely to pitch well than a taxed one. But I still see your point. It's not like Maddux has been horrible when he's out there eating innings. Maddux getting shelled early played a role in the attrition of the pen. He's had 5 outings when he's given up as many runs as he has innings pitched, and there have been another 3-4 when he's been just 1 run shy of that mark. He's had 8 starts of 5 IP or less. Much of this was a repeat of last year. Greg has been consistent in that he's made all his starts, and racks of the innings, but from start to start you never know if you'll get 4 IP 5 ER, 7 IP 3 ER, or 9 IP 2 ER.

Can someone please provide some sort of proof of how his presence on the bench is worth anything other than just spouting off the same tired line over and over? It doesn't look like him leaving Atlanta hurt them, and the Cubs haven't gotten any better since he's arrived. No pitcher has improved. Exactly what has his presence meant to this team? Is it possible that all this talk of Greg's mentoring ability was nothing but talk? Could it have just been a bunch of overhyped romanticism fueled on by the conventional wisdom of a sport that feeds on BS, myths, superstitions, good ole' day gobbledygook and the unsubstantiated subjective ramblings of a collective group of people who absolutely despise the thought of objective analysis?

As much as I like them, with a cheap option on Walker, Nomar re-signed and having Cedeno.............where would they play? I believe the Cubs can upgrade both corner OF positions while still keeping a productive IF. Lewis had a terrible season, he's probably worthless. Fontenot might be a decent bench option at the minimum cost.

I'd have no problem dealing Barrett, but I bet Hendry would. Plus, you'd really have a tough time settling your OF dilemna once you go back to subpar offense at C as well. You would have to get 2 good OF bats, and couldn't settle on just one.

That package wouldn't even start a conversation. If Philly once again falls short, I wouldn't eliminate the possibility of them dealing Abreu, but you're basically sending them spare parts, not prospects.

Liebs signed a 3/$21m deal before this year. Reports have him earnings about $5.5m this year, leaving 2 years at $7.75 per year. That's not a bad deal for a reliable middle of the rotation guy, but Jon is basically Greg Maddux at this point. And the Cubs already have the unreliable Maddux on the books for $9m next season. They have very similar k/9, k/bb, WHIP, ERA. Lieber has given up a few more HR, and that might be due to his ballpark, but he's been lit up pretty well on the road as well. At 36 next season, I just don't see Lieber making much of an improvement either. Now, if Philly asked the Cubs to take on Lieber and were willing to hand over Abreu in an effort to overhaul their roster, then by all means I'd be interested. But I don't think that's happening, and I don't think there's much value in Lieber alone.

Where is the "throw-up in my mouth" thread? Preston is no better than Burnitz, and Burnitz isn't any good. He's a $2 million 4th OF at best.

I'm not sure what the incentives are, but I think managerial incompetence has more to do with Neifi being at the top of the order than an extra PA or so to get him incentives. Well, yeah, but the incentives would actually provide a reason he would do that... It would also show how much he actually values putting the best team out there... if he cares more for his buddy's incentives to kick in more... Dusty has insinuated in the past that he makes playing time decisions at least partially based upon how much the player makes. If memory serves, Perez's incentives were all PA related, and he needed to get something like 400 PA to get them all.

It boggles my mind why somebody would want to sign J. Jones, who isn't much of an offensive CF himself. He's making $5 million now, and could easily demand $7+ in this market. I don't think either Corey or Jones is a good option. Wow, Jones has really tanked the last month. Even with that though, his numbers are about middle of the pack for CF. It would depend on the money and length of course, but if we're looking for that stopgap type player I mentioned earlier, he seems to be the only FA that fills the bill. At 31 starting next season, I bet he's looking for a lot more than a stopgap opportunity. Plus, he's not even a CF. He's a more expensive Todd Hollandsworth.

It boggles my mind why somebody would want to sign J. Jones, who isn't much of an offensive CF himself. He's making $5 million now, and could easily demand $7+ in this market. I don't think either Corey or Jones is a good option.

What? I don't get the joke. I assume it was a joke because you said Macias should start in center, where's he's awful defensively and quite capable of underperforming Corey's 2005 numbers at the plate.

Excellent Cheap Seats reference. note: My memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure it was Garvey who hosted that fishing tourney that Cheap Seats parodied. In regards to Dusty, I have no idea what he's talking about. I've seen 1 episode of that show, and that was it. Garvey in the short shorts with the cheesiest collection of 80's characters possible.

As a longtime Corey supporter who would like to see him given one last chance, I have to admit that I completely understand where you're coming from. It's very difficult to justify bringing him back. The only good reasons I can think of is there aren't any good available CF to replace him, and Felix Pie should not break camp with this team next year. He missed half of this season and prior to this season he wasn't exactly lighting up the stat sheets. I'd rather have him in AA or even AAA next April, showing that the first half of 2005 was for real. I'd like to see an improvement in plate discipline, most notably in the k/bb ratio, and he still needs work on the baserunning. Remember, the majors isn't a place to learn, at least that's what the manager thinks, and if he hasn't shown the willingness or ability to develop any other kids, there's no reason to think he'll do so with Pie. There's still an outside shot that Corey could have a decent season next year, if only they'd stop trying to turn him into Otis Nixon. No, I don't have much confidence in that happening, but I don't see much of a realistic alternative either.